The Analysis of HIV/AIDS Representation in American Cinema Case Study: Dallas Buyers Club Movie

HIV/Aids has social dimensions such as different kinds of sanctions, ýdiscrimination and stigmatization.ýþ þUndoubtedly, media including cinema can ýchange the social meaning of HIV/Aids. Thus the semantic study which is ýconstructed by the cinema regarding HIV/AIDS is important. In this research, Dallas Buyers Club (2013), the latest US cinema film on HIV / AIDS, ýwas selected, because the experience of other countries in displaying HIV / ýAIDS can be useful for more suitable regarding representation of Aids in our country. The question is, ýhow HIV/AIDS is defined in this movie? And how the produced social ýmeaning would challenge the patient’s life? Answering these questions can ýincrease our understanding about media power to construct various meanings ýof the disease.ý
Theoretical foundations of the research are based on the symbolic ýcounteraction theory and Goffman’s concept of stigma. ý
This study has been done by using the qualitative content analysis method and we ýcan categorize the resulted concepts into 4 general categories:ý
ý1.ý Struggling for life in opposition to death
ý2.ý The evolution of the meaning of love and life in opposition to hate and ýprejudice
ý3.ý To challenge the stigma of the disease in opposition to the dominant ýsemantic construction
ý4.ý Changing the meaning of the disease for the patient.ý
Finally, we conclude that this movie would produce a meaning for ýHIV/Aids using the communication power of the cinema which would ýchallenge the dominant stigma of the disease in American societyþ.þ